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Archive for February 3rd, 2010

Even if you are already using the Internet to market your
business, you should consider adding affiliate marketing
to you Internet marketing campaign. Affiliate marketing,
when done right, can yield a great deal of positive results
for your business. Furthermore, even when affiliate
marketing is not done right, it will not likely be
financially detrimental to the business. This is because
affiliate marketing is essentially an advertising program
in which you only pay the affiliates when their marketing
efforts yield financial results for your business. This
article will take a look at affiliate marketing and explain
how it works and how you can maximize the benefits of
affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing essentially involves having website
owners, known as affiliates, post advertisements for your
website on their own website. You can lear more about
affiliate marketig by checking out the Internet marketing
blog at www.jeremyburns.com for weekly updates. Affiliate
advertisements encourage visitors to click on the link and
visit your website. The advertisements are specially coded
to allow you to determine how many visitors enter your
website through this advertisement. Unlike other types of
Internet advertising where the business owner pays for the
opportunity to place the advertisement on the website, an
affiliate program does not work this way. Instead the
affiliate is paid when the advertisement yields a desired
result.

Affiliate advertisement can work on a pay per impression,
pay per click, pay per lead or pay per sale basis. Pay per
impression means the affiliate earns a profit each time
the affiliate advertisement is served. This means for each
unique visitor who views the advertisement the affiliate
is given a predetermined amount of money. This amount will
depend on a number of factors and will be agreed upon by
the business owner and the affiliate before the
advertisements begin appearing on the affiliate’s website.

Pay per click programs reward the affiliate each time a
visit clicks through the advertisement. Pay per lead
programs reward the affiliate when a visitor not only
clicks on the advertisement but also performs a desired
action such as filling out a survey or registering with
the website. Pay per sale programs reward the affiliate
each time a visitor clicks through the advertisement on
the affiliate’s website and also makes a purchase during
this visit. The compensation plans associated with affiliate
programs are so desirable because the business owner can
have a number of affiliates and they only have to pay these
affiliates if the advertising on the affiliate’s website is
effective.

Affiliate marketing does not always work. When seeking out
affiliates it is important to look for a number of different
factors. An affiliate with a great deal of experience, a
website with high traffic and a proven track record for
producing positive results will likely be a good choice for
an affiliate marketing program. These affiliates rely on
their advertising knowledge to promote the businesses and
do not necessarily have to understand the business they
are promoting. Another excellent choice for affiliate
marketing is to select another business that is closely
related to your own business but does not compete with your
business. This is a good idea because they may share your
target audience and their website visitors will also likely
be interested in visiting your website as well. For example
if you sell running shoes you may wish to run an affiliate
marketing campaign on a website that promotes road races
such as marathons, half marathons, 10Ks and 5Ks. This
website does not directly compete with your business but
they are likely to attract an audience that would be
interested in and have a need for your products or services.

Deciding whether or not to implement an affiliate marketing
campaign is easy. As we previously mentioned there is very
little risk in this type of campaign so it is worthwhile in
just about any situation. A more important decision to make
is how you plan to compensate your affiliates. The
compensation for pay per impression programs is typically
pretty low because your business is not necessarily
generating a sale from each impression. Conversely, pay
per sale programs usually compensates the affiliate better
because the business does directly generate a profit from
the advertising on the affiliate’s website. This amount
may a flat fee or a percentage of the sale depending on
the affiliate agreement.